College Sports

John Smith, former Arkansas coach, hired by Fort Lewis in Durango

Michigan State head coach John L. Smith in 2005 (Associated Press file)

The major-college football coaching carousel continued to spin Wednesday — and this time it spun an SEC coach right into Division II Durango.

Fort Lewis College (enrollment 3,856) hired John L. Smith as its new coach. Last year, Smith coached Arkansas (enrollment 24,537) as the Razorbacks' season-long interim boss.

"I can coach for the love of the game. It's no different than any other level," Smith said in a phone interview. "The only difference is, you're going from walking into a stadium with 100,000 fans to another with 1,000."

In a strange season at Arkansas, after Smith replaced former coach Bobby Petrino amid a scandal that cost Petrino his job, the Razorbacks went 4-8 and Smith was let go.

Michigan State head coach John L. Smith in 2006 (Getty Images file)

Now he is moving to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with the task of boosting a Skyhawks team that went 0-10 last season.

"We're going to have to do some things to make it better as far as football wins," Smith said. "But at least I know the people I work with are in it for the right reason, for the kids."

It's not common for a head coach at an FBS school to move directly to Division II. But Smith has relationships with Fort Lewis president Dene Thomas and athletic director Gary Hunter. Both were at Idaho when Smith was the head coach there from 1989-94.

"Fort Lewis is making a commitment to football," Hunter said in a news release. "We are extremely fortunate to have a coach with the tremendous background and experience that John L. brings."

Cesar Rivas-Sandoval recently resigned as Fort Lewis' coach after compiling a 6-25 record over three seasons. And the Skyhawks have had only one coach with a winning career record. Even Gary Barnett, who coached at Fort Lewis from 1982-83, went just 8-11-1. Barnett coached a Big 12 champ- ionship team at Colorado in 2001.

"You still have to coach, reach the kids, teach the lessons of life," Smith said. "These kids aren't thinking about the NFL, they're thinking about playing hard and getting good grades."

Smith, the uncle of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, also has been head coach at Michigan State (2003-06) and Louisville (1998-2002), among others.

At Idaho, Smith coached with Ed Rifilato, now the defensive coordinator at Fort Lewis. Rifilato will run the program until Smith arrives March 1, the school said.

Smith has a career 136-94 record as a head coach over 19 seasons. He also has coached at Utah State and took the job at Weber State in 2011. But he ran that program during the offseason, never coaching a game there. Arkansas hired him before the 2012 season, after Petrino was fired.

"The coaching part is the same everywhere," Smith said. "Fort Lewis hasn't been very successful lately, but I've stepped into places like that in the past.

"We're just going to get up early, have a great work ethic, do the right things and be competitive."

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